Christopher Hitchens and Freethinking Parenting At Its Best

December 18, 2011 By 1 Comment

One of our last, and by far the most touching, videos we have of Christopher Hitchens comes from the Texas Freethought Convention this past October. Watching him with the charmingly and precociously smart little girl in the video, he is downright grandfatherly: Mason was interviewed afterward: Why did you decide it was important to ask [...]

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Hitchens, Ethics, Ethics, Friendly Atheist, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism Tagged With: 1 Comment

Criticizing Wicca: Levels

December 17, 2011 By 13 Comments

This is a guest post by Eric Steinhart, Professor of Philosophy at William Paterson University. Some statements are based on evidence, while others are not.  And there is evidence for the existence of some entity if and only if the existence of that entity is asserted in a statement that is based on evidence.  To [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Evidence, Metaphysics, Naturalism, Paganism, Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Rationalism, Religion and Science, Science, Wicca 13 Comments

Do Atheists Worship Truth?

December 15, 2011 By 45 Comments

This is a guest post by Eric Steinhart, Professor of Philosophy at William Paterson University. Although many atheists seem hostile to metaphysics, that hostility is misplaced.  Any deep philosophical position is bound to presuppose some metaphysics.  Pure reason is also highly abstract.  Should pure reason be constrained by empirical evidence?   How?   All efforts to specify [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Evidence, Featured, Naturalism, Philosophy, Rationalism 45 Comments

Atheism and Beauty

December 14, 2011 By 88 Comments

This is a guest post by Eric Steinhart, Professor of Philosophy at William Paterson University. Some atheists seem to be inspired by a thorough-going hatred of metaphysics; perhaps even a thorough-going hatred of all abstract reasoning.  They are radical positivists (or radical nominalists, but I’ll focus on positivism).  Positivism is the doctrine that only that [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Epistemology, Metaphysics, Naturalism, Philosophy, Rationalism 88 Comments

Criticizing Wicca: Energy

December 13, 2011 By 24 Comments

This is a guest post by Eric Steinhart, Professor of Philosophy at William Paterson University. On the basis of my reading of a few Wiccan texts, I said that Wiccans believe that their ultimate deity is the ultimate immanent creative power of being.  This is an old Platonic idea.  The existence of such a power [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Culture, Cutural Criticism, Epistemology, Intellectual Vices, Metaphysics, Naturalism, Paganism, Philosophy, Pseudoscience, Rationalism, Religion and Science, Wicca 24 Comments

Podcast Series Covering The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

December 2, 2011 By 8 Comments

Earlier today, I posted a link to an exceptional, accessible podcast introduction to the philosophies of the ancient cynics. The whole series that that podcast comes from is a marvelous idea and the few I’ve listened to are just great. It’s called “The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps” and it’s a must listen, basically a [...]

Filed Under: Epistemology, Epistemology, Ethics, Ethics, Historical Ethics, Historical Ethics, Historical Philosophy, Historical Philosophy, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Love, Love, Metaethics, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Plato, Plato, Teleology, Teleology, Virtues, Virtues Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 8 Comments

If You Love South Park, Learn About the Originals–The Ancient Cynics

December 2, 2011 By 3 Comments

What kinds of philosophers choose the name for their school of philosophy from the word for dogs? The cynics, who were basically social-convention flouting performance artists and proto-south park scatalogical/philosophical satirists of their time. Learn plenty about them in a very accessible 22 minutes, filled with charming anecdotes. An ancient philosophy specialist and friend of mine recommended [...]

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Comedy, Comedy, Ethics, Ethics, Hilarious, Historical Ethics, Historical Ethics, Historical Philosophy, Historical Philosophy, Hypocrisy, Hypocrisy, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Plato, Plato, Virtues, Virtues Tagged With: , , , , , 3 Comments

If You Don’t Believe In Objective Values, Then Don’t Talk To Me About Objective Scientific Truth Either

November 27, 2011 By 111 Comments

I recently argued that when any of us act, we must act for reasons. When acting for reasons we must decide that the end we pursue is the best, most worthwhile, goal to pursue and that the action we take in order to achieve that goal is the most suitable one. I should also add [...]

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Authority, Authority, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Ethical Pluralism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Ethics, Evidence, Evidence, Hypocrisy, Hypocrisy, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Metaethics, Morality, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Naturalistic Fallacy, Naturalistic Fallacy, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Science, Science, Science, Teleology, Teleology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 111 Comments

Why Bother Blaming People At All? Isn't That Just Judgmental?

November 25, 2011 By 33 Comments

Before moving on to addressing the question of when it is right or wrong to get offended, let me quickly address a certain attitude that arises a lot in response to my posts on morality. I sense in the tone of a lot of comments I get in general that there is a fear of [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Ethical Pluralism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Ethics, Hypocrisy, Hypocrisy, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Jesus, Jesus, Metaethics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Rationalism, Virtues, Virtues Tagged With: , , , , , , 33 Comments

Yes, We Can Blame People For Their Feelings, Not Just Their Actions

November 24, 2011 By 21 Comments

“You can’t blame people for how they feel, only for what they do.” “You have every right to be offended, but you don’t have the right to censor others just because you’re offended.” In this post and the next one, I want to explain why I think these two common moral sentiments are quite mistaken—or, [...]

Filed Under: Ethics, Ethics, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Prejudice, Racism, Virtues, Virtues 21 Comments